For the past few weeks, reports were out regarding Roman Reigns’ opponent for Royal Rumble 2023 PPV event. Kevin Owens was suggested to be that challenger against the top champion of the WWE in the first WWE Network Specials of the year. During last night’s Smackdown, WWE eventually confirmed the match in the opening segment.
SmackDown kicked off with The Bloodline as Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns pointed out how that he didn’t lose last week in a tag team match against Owens and John Cena but Sami Zayn did. Roman was yelling at Sami when Kevin Owens interrupted and claimed that Roman has a KO problem to deal with.
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Owens was quick to challenge Reigns to a title match at Royal Rumble 2023 which Reigns accepted immediately as he wanted Owens to be gone from his sight. Owens did the same after stating the following,
“Roman, I’ll see you at the Royal Rumble. And Sami, I’ll see you whenever you manage to dig your ba**s out of Roman’s pocket.”
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Reigns vs Owens previously happened at Royal Rumble
Roman Reigns is currently in the middle of a historic title reign as the top champion of the WWE who last defended his title against Logan Paul at the Crown Jewel premium live event on November 5. The announced match at Royal Rumble 2023 will mark his first title defense as well as his first televised match of this year.
Also, the match at Royal Rumble 2023 will incidentally mark the third time that Reigns and Owens will be battling for a championship in this particular WWE premium live event of the year. They have previously collided at Royal Rumble 2017 and Royal Rumble 2021 with the Universal Title hanging in the balance.
While Owens prevailed in 201Y to retain his Universal Championship, Reigns won the Last Man Standing Match 2021. The duo also competed for the same title at TLC 2020 with Reigns getting the win. That being said, Reigns currently stands 2-1 favorite heading into this year’s event.
Royal Rumble 2023 PLE Match Card
Royal Rumble 2023 premium live event takes place Saturday, January 28 at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. The updated match card for the first WWE Network Specials is given below:
– Undisputed WWE Universal Championship Match: Roman Reigns (c) vs. Kevin Owens
– Pitch Black Match: Bray Wyatt vs. LA Knight
– Men’s Royal Rumble Match: Kofi Kingston, Ricochet, Santos Escobar, and 27 Superstars TBA
– Women’s Royal Rumble Match: Liv Morgan, and 29 Superstars TBA
